Labour Renew Attack on Boris’s Bus Figures

Ken Livingstone has renewed attacks on Boris Johnson’s figures for re-introducing buses with conductors and called for Johnson to “officially” withdraw his transport manifesto.

Last week Johnson unveiled detailed policy pledges on the future of transport in the capital including replacing bendy buses with a new generation of Routemasters staffed by conductors.

At the time Johnson’s campaign claimed the cost of this would be £8m. Livingstone’s campaign claimed the cost would be £100m higher, requiring “a huge 15% minimum increase in bus fares”.

Today’s calls come after Guardian reporter Dave Hill published detailed costings based on figures from both campaigns and Transport for London.

In a statement issued today Mayor Livingstone claimed “there is now no doubt whatever that Boris Johnson has made a £100 million a year error in the cost of his transport policies.”

“Someone who does not know to within £100 million a year what is the cost of his bus policy, when six million Londoners a day travel by bus, would be even more of a catastrophe for London if put in charge of huge multi-billion pound projects such as Crossrail or the tube modernisation.”

Johnson campaign are standing by their figures and have accused TfL of political bias, a claim rejected by the body, and claimed there are “serious flaws” in TfL’s figures.

Labour have been keen to point out that Evening Standard reporter Andrew Gilligan, who has led the reporting into alleged malpractice at the London Development Agency, has also questioned Johnson’s figures.